New executive director takes over Winnetka Youth Organization

Kristen Leahy, right, has been appointed the new executive director of the Winnetka Youth Organization. She replaces, Liz Fales, lleft. (Winnetka Youth Organization, Handout)

When the Winnetka Youth Organization started looking for a new executive director earlier this summer, it did not have to look very far.

The board of directors selected Kristen Leahy, who has been serving as program director for more than two years and has been working with adolescents since 2005, will take over as executive director. She succeeds Liz Fales, 29, who said she is taking a job with an organization called Safe Connections in St. Louis, where she will be managing a crisis hotline and developing community education and professional training related to domestic and sexual violence.

"Liz has done an incredible job in helping to grow the organization. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors," board president John Thomas said in a statement. "In the past three years, the WYO has tripled its youth program participation, and we know Ms. Leahy can continue advancing our programming in the coming years."

Located in the basement of the Winnetka Community House, the WYO is a teen drop-in center providing programming to more than 1,000 middle and high school teens each year. Since 1969, it has fostered individual development in students by providing adult-to-youth mentoring, prevention services and opportunities for leadership.

"Teens need to be supported," Fales said. "We have tried to be a home away from home. This is really a place that is for teens to help build social skills and build self-esteem and self confidence and is also a safe zone away from the stress and challenges they might face in the rest of their life.

"Obviously the youth organization is targeted toward adolescents," she said. "But it really plays an important role in the whole family dynamic. Really being active and being engaged and being involved and developing relationships in the community is something that I can look back on and be very glad that I was a part of doing."

Leahy, 24, said her past two years at WYO have allowed her to connect with the community in a meaningful way.

"I've gotten to meet a lot of great community leaders and teenagers, too," she said. "It's been a great experience overall."

In her new position, fundraising will be a top priority.

"We're doing OK, but we could definitely use more funding," she said. "In the last fiscal year, we saw over 1,000 different teens, which is the highest number for our organization ever. It's really important to me to sustain those numbers and continue to grow. To do that we need to branch out and find new sources of funding."

Leahy also said that one of the most important functions of WYO is the social service programming that for the past two summers has included sending teens to work on out-of-state Habitat for Humanity projects.

"The service trip is unique to what we do," she said. "We like to give teens an opportunity to see a different part of the country. We're always going somewhere outside the Illinois, Cook County area.

"It's kind of like an immersion trip," she said. "It's great to give them that experience. To get out of Winnetka and see something different and also do something great for somebody else. Habitat is great especially because when we're doing those building projects, you see the results of them immediately. When we were done, we were able to walk away and take pictures."